I’m not really good at New Year’s Resolutions, but I’ve got one this year that should be fairly easy to do: knit more yarn than I buy. So far I’ve bought 11 skeins, so I’ve got a ways to go.

I’ve made a spreadsheet to track how many skeins I’ve bought versus how many I’ve used, and I’ve got another spreadsheet to track my KAL goals and deadlines.

This last year, I started watching some knitting podcasts, and they are just so much fun! They’re also pretty inspiring. I find new yarns to try, new patterns to try, and it really just makes the knitting world seem just a little smaller and like the podcasters are my friends. Anyone else get that feeling? A couple of my favorites are the Yarnhoarder and the Grocery Girls. Unfortunately (fortunately?), they have also introduced me to new yarn dyers, which is not helping my resolutions knitting goals.

Hue Shift Afghan Year-long KAL: 14 skeins fingering weight yarn, 13 of which are from stash. I’ll be making 196 squares, so ~16-17 squares/month at least. I should probably do 17-18 squares/month and then leave December for the border.

Q1 TinCanKnits KAL: at least 2 skeins DK weight yarn, both from stash. I’ll be making matching hats for myself and Jaina. Jaina’s will be in Hedgehog Merino DK Pucker (a skein she keeps pulling out of my yarn stash because it.is.the.best.colorway.) and mine in Juniper. Bonus! Little baby hats are super quick knits, and ta da! First hat done! Now, of course, that led into needing matching mittens to go along with her hat, so I’m working on those now. Deadline: March 31, 2018.

Q2 Summer of Socks KAL: at least 3 skeins fingering weight yarn, likely from stash (unless, you know, I find something I really need to have before then, which is likely). Patterns are a mystery! Potential for double-dipping here.

Q3 Exclusively Exclusive KAL: I’ll need to use some of their exclusive colorways for this, so likely more socks! I’ve got several exclusive colorways so far, so I’ll have a bunch to choose from, plus they always have new colorways each month.

Q4 Charted Waters KAL: Something! Hopefully from stash! I’ve got a few sweater quantities that need to be knit up, so I’ll plan to dive into those.

Badges: I’ll try to double-dip with some of the other KALs for some of the badges this year.

The KAL is to knit something using the Holiday Hippo colorways each month. And there’s a special prize if you have one for each month. So, I’ll plan for 12 pairs of socks, one pair to be completed each month. My first pair is using the Hippo for Hanukkah 2017 colorway. Up next, I’ve got Hippo for New Year’s 2018 and Hippo for Valentine’s 2018.

These do not double-dip with the ESK KALs.

I’m starting out with Vanilla socks so I can try to find the best sock fit for me. It turns out I’ve been making all of my socks too big for ever.

Grocery Girls Sock Bash 2018

Knit a pair of socks each month, or as many socks as I can knit! For this one, I can double-dip all of the other socks I’m making!

CostumeSandy #HusbandSocksKAL2018

The goal here is to knit one pair of socks/two months for my awesome husband, who supports my yarn addiction and loves to wear the socks I make him. Now, if only I could make myself weave in the ends on the socks I made for the Tour de Sock last year, he’d have another pair already! (Those don’t count for this KAL, of course.)

I’m going to start with a vanilla sock with a heel flap using Lolodidit’s Droids colorway. I’d really like to find a good sock fit for him.

That’s it so far! I’m sure I’ll jump on some more KAL trains as we go. What are your plans for the year?

In college, I could stay up late with the best of them. Two a.m., the Acorn Cafe, and I were very good friends. On occasion, I even hung out with Great Oaks Hall and the elusive all-nighter.

Not so anymore. These days, my eyes are drooping by 10:00 p.m. Baby J is a good sleeper and will usually sleep all night, but in the last two weeks or so, her sleep time shifted from 10:00 to 11:00 to 11:30. After a discussion with our pediatrician, we are moving her bedtime up to 8:00, and so far this seems to be working.

I don’t need to go to bed as soon as Baby J is asleep! This has been great — I can stay up and knit, play a game, or watch a show with my husband. It’s a double-edged sword, though, as I get addicted to the time, and I end up staying up later than I should.

Last night is the perfect example. Baby J was asleep and in her crib at 8:00 p.m., my husband was playing Battlefield 1 with friends, and I had a date with a sock.

I am not typically a monogamous knitter. I love to cast on whatever project grabs my eye. Yes, sometimes this means that projects don’t get finished for a year or that they eventually get frogged (ripped out so the yarn can be reused). But for me, the joy of knitting comes from the process: finding a pattern, discovering a beautifully dyed skein of yarn, casting on, and knitting (not always in that order).

These socks, though, are for my husband, and he is patiently waiting for them to be ready. Because he is paying attention to what I’m knitting, he would notice if I switched projects. So I need to finish them. Because I want to KNIT ALL THE THINGS.

Thus midnight and met once again. One sock is completed, and yesterday at Knit Night, I made great progress on the cuff and had even started the heel increases. So after Baby J was asleep, I went to town on these socks. By the time 11:00 p.m. rolled around, I was so close to being ready to turn the heel that I had to keep going.

I should have stopped. The later I stayed up, the more mistakes I made. This row was off by one stitch. That pattern didn’t quite line up. You get the idea. I felt like Tina from Bob’s Burgers, but with the enthusiasm of her sister Louise.

Fortunately, I made it through without needing to frog any of the work and was able to drop down one or two stitches to fix my mistakes, but it takes longer to fix the mistakes than it does just to knit! I made it to about four rows before the heel turn, and in the process, I qualified for the Night Owl Knits badge for the Eat.Sleep.Knit Yarnathon Booster Club!

This morning during Baby J’s first nap, I was able to finish the heel turn! Now for the foot of the sock. I WILL finish these this weekend so I can knit all the other things!

As my husband and I searched for homes in the Atlanta area last year, we checked Google Maps for the commute time to and from work. Pretty normal, right? Well, I took it one step further with an additional consideration: how far was the home from my favorite yarn shop? As it turned out, the answer was “not far” for our new home.

Of course, Eat.Sleep.Knit has an awesome website with amazingly color-accurate photos of the yarn (great work, Jess!), and I have been an ESK customer since well before I moved to Atlanta, so I’m sure I would have been OK shopping online. There’s just no feeling like being able to hold the yarn in my hands, choose just the right skeins, and hang out and chat with all of the ESK kitties and my fellow knit-nighters. I’m glad everything worked out so well!

On New Year’s Eve, as my husband and I waited to watch the crystal ball fall in New York City, I was wondering what the new year would bring for the Eat.Sleep.Knit Yarnathon. As has become custom, I was not disappointed when the 2017 Yarnathon was unveiled!

I’m a new member of the Taffy Giraffes, and I couldn’t be more excited! ESK has an incredible marketing team, and of course I want to buy more yarn, but the Yarnathon is so much more than that! I get to participate in knit-alongs, earn badges, reach new milestones, test my knitting skills, and share my love of yarn and knitting with a wonderful community of people.

I’ve also learned that my favorite yarn dyer, madelinetosh, is dying exclusive colorways for ESK this year! You’d better believe I will be hitting ctrl+R until I can order mine! *squee*

If you are living or shopping in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend stopping by Eat.Sleep.Knit’s storefront, and if you aren’t, be sure to check out their awesome selection of indie and hand-dyed yarns!